For over 25 years, Associates Ken and Michelle Barrie have been bringing young people from Kankakee County to serve local needs in Pembroke Township, including at and around its Catholic church, Sacred Heart. From now on, when they visit for service and fellowship, they’ll be at a Viatorian parish: Bishop Ronald Hicks of the Diocese of Joliet appointed Bishop Christopher Glancy, CSV as Parochial Administrator of Sacred Heart, effective March 2.
“When I heard the news that Bishop Hicks approached the Viatorians to minister and serve the people there, my heart almost leapt out of my body,” Ken said. “I’ve witnessed the decline in the ways that the parish is just hanging on. As we’ve kept up our commitment and continued bringing groups out there, I was worried its days could be numbered. Yet I knew it my heart we could do it and we would do it. This is answered prayer. God has a special place out there and put us and the Viatorians there.”
Bishop Glancy (center) with Associates Ken and Michelle Barrie (left) and the 2024 Hearts of Hope group during their time in Pembroke Township last summer.
Bishop Glancy began exploring the idea in earnest during last summer’s Hearts of Hope, the service program the Barries run for local youth, by bringing lunch out to the group and visiting with people.
Bishop Glancy made several return visits and dialogued with now outgoing pastor, Fr. Ray Lescher, a retired priest of the Diocese of Joliet. He learned about the poor fertility of the soil on the large lots and the preference for raising animals over farming. Bishop Glancy also learned how the Sisters of the Holy Heart assisted with founding the church in this majority Black community in the 1930s that remains one of the most materially poor areas in Illinois.
“The Viatorians are called to serve those counted of little importance by some in our world. The people of Sacred Heart Church are among those folks,” Bishop Glancy said. “The experience of St. Patrick youth and many parishioners who have supported them is to encounter in the people of Pembroke ones who humbly live their faith and inspire us to do the same.”
Viatorians and friends gathered to help prepare and serve the meal and enjoy fellowship with the local faith community.
The Sunday noon Mass typically draws a few dozen people. Already, the Viatorians have noticed an uptick, especially for this past Sunday’s kickoff breakfast, for which several Viatorians pitched in. Additionally, with a growing Spanish-speaking population in the area, Bishop Glancy intends to offer bilingual Mass frequently and will invite Viatorian priests who assist there to do the same. “Today about 20% of the area is Hispanic and half or more of those who go to church are also Hispanic,” Bishop Glancy said.
Bishop Glancy, the Barries, and other Viatorians in the area – including our three other parishes – intend this to be the first of many faith formation and fellowship events to come.
“This is a way of making what we’ve been working to do more official. It can be a way toward rebirth and new life,” Michelle said. “When we had our first meeting out there, someone called Sacred Heart ‘holy ground.’ We always talked about how there may not be much there, but it’s special and we’re drawn to it. Sacred Heart is what the Viatorian charism is all about.”
The community gathered for a kickoff breakfast to celebrate this new chapter for Sacred Heart.